Now, suddenly, it all makes sense.  A couple of months ago an anonymous man inside at a taping of BG East matches in Florida sent me a batch of behind the scenes photos of wrestlers between matches. Those were the photos that introduced us to just-released last week rookies Ty Alexander and Kayden Keller, you may remember. In the batch of candid photos was this unexplained promotional pic of the Cheshire Cat of homoerotic wrestling, Drake Marcos, with the provocative tag, “Property of Mason Brooks” scrawled across his chest.  Clearly, there was a backstory that we hadn’t yet been told. Now that story has been told in Passion and Punishment 1.

Mason Brooks is a stock on the rise, as far as I’m concerned. He arrived for his match with Drake with a deceptively disappointing 0-2 record at BG East, but when you watch Mason wrestle, you know there’s something seriously dangerous about him. You can practically hear him thinking, plotting, planning and scheming as he works his way through a wrestling match like he’s a chess master.

Drake, of course, had a similar tough row to hoe in his rookie matches with BG East. However, Drake seems to bring out the raging sadist in his opponents (which is quite a skill set!), and hunks seem to be lining up to wipe that sly grin off of the eager stud’s handsome face. After Jonny Firestorm got his hands all over Drake’s increasingly fit bod, I honestly wondered if we’d ever see that Cheshire Cat grin on Drake’s face again. Jonny seemed to leave Drake’s mug permanently contorted and twisted in agony. But he’s back to face Mason with the “I know something you don’t know” grin back in place.

Word to the wise: when you sit down to watch Passion and Punishment, have a steady supply of electrolytes nearby. Your going to seriously need to replenish fluids frequently. And I don’t just mean Drake and Mason’s match (Skrapper and Trey Dixon’s match is instantly my odds on favorite for best mat match of 2014!). But I do, most definitely, include Mason and Drake’s face off as a major component in dehydrating me as I watched these two ferocious competitors work up about 3 quarts of sweat and at least a cup and a half of tears.

Both Drake and Mason have something to prove, and it hinges on the fact that someone is going to walk out of the mat room with his first BG East victory under his belt. Well, there are no belts, and I’m thrilled to report that neither of these studs has any stitch of clothing in which to tuck anything at all by the time they stroll out of the mat room. Well, one of them strolls. The other drags his naked, drenched carcass across the mat on hands and knees.

You know the hard spot I nurture for drama, and Mason and Drake deal out the drama non-stop. The banter isn’t just fantastically provocative trash talk (let’s be clear, it is that, but not only that). These two smarter-than-your-average-bear hotties tell a story from start to finish. It’s a story about young egos swollen with the adoration of wrestling fans and bloggers (well, one particular blogger seems to be be quoted more than once during this bout). It’s a story of the beauty of domination paired like a fine wine with the beauty of truly outstanding, all-in suffering. The sensationally sexy climax (well, about the 4th or 5th climax for me) centers on an all-naked screaming torture rack with the victim quite obviously embodying both the passion and punishment side of the titular equation, and the incredibly satisfying denouement features not just Drake’s photo getting tagged with permanent marker.

Watching Drake show up for each new match in better and better shape absolutely mesmerizes me. Talk about wrestling doing a body good! With his conditioning steadily on the rise along with his experience, I’m just not sure it’s going to be believable for long that this pretty boy could job forever. And Mason’s fans need to order a couple of copies of this DVD to keep one sealed away as a collector’s item, because you will want to treasure the first time you saw Mason’s glistening body wrestling naked. I have to think there’s a whole lot of unfinished business left to take care of even after the decisive ending to this match, because there are majorly bruised egos, bodies, and unanswered appeals to fans to invest in the stocks of these raging sophomores. I cannot wait!